Inception
by HanaKoryuo
Summary: "You told me you come from a dystopian future and you're looking for the cause of it. Right?" "Correct." "Will I build a time travel machine in your future?" L pauses, lingering in the amber ocean of Light's eyes. They both know Yagami's aware of the truth even if L has never mentioned it, so it's futile to lie once again. "Yes, you will." [ Fic inspired by Steins;Gate ]


**Inception**

"To be fairly clear, I cannot guarantee your safety."  
"I'm willing to take the risk as I did back in 2010."

The futuristic temporal line in 2030 has proved that the human moralistic goal of preventing horrors is to be investigated in the inception of the attitude of exceptionalism -that a single _mistake_ serves as the origin of both utopia and dystopia. The ideology as being unique among others in positive or negative connotations instilled in mankind distorted believes, such as an oppressive societal control is able to maintain the illusion of a perfect society and build the foundation of a new democracy.  
Totalitarianism is the answer given in the dystopian future of the Kira Corporation.  
Though near perfection, the organization has been able to fully achieve human time travel and has monopolized the production and use of time machines.  
When L Lawliet jumps in temporal line of year 2030, the faceless figures behind the whole organization are taking part in various clandestine operations such as assassinations and world domination; the burst of World War III is closer than expected.

"SPK was born after our mentor L Lawliet died at the hands of the Kira Corporation in 2020." Near plays with a curl of hair, skimming the program report. "He provided us the information of the time travel machine theory before his confinement. As we acknowledged later, he was severely tortured but never spoke a single word until his last breath. If we're still alive and you're L Lawliet from 2010, his sacrifice wasn't in vain."  
A soft buzz came from the machines attached to a monitor, several code lines loaded at the speed of sound as Near typed along the keyboard with one hand, the other still mindedly uncurling white hair. Slouched towards the monitor, L stood by his side, hands in the pockets of a lab coat. "Correct. This is one of the lines I figured out on my own when tracing the possible temporal lines. Presumably my future clone did the same." L said, turning to the first prototype of time time travel machine able to jump back and forth all the temporal lines. "The information in our possession confirm Light Yagami responsible of the outcome of 2030's dystopia and the race for time machines. I need to find out the right temporal line to prevent his plans."  
"Good luck." The twenty-eight years old version of future Near welcomes L's speech with a vague nod. Before he hops into the machine, L glances at him one last time and he's aware his decision to nominate Near as his successor before the first time travel in 2010 was the right decision.

The time leap machine he built with the help of Near works perfectly, but still it's hard to guess the right time gap as in the previous prototype L built on his own in 2010. The man lands on the top of Akihabara Radio Hall on February 3rd 2009, a half and a year earlier than the burst of Kira's dystopia. As he comes down the iron stairs, a known voice resonates from the conference room. It's the day of Yagami Light's conference about the time travelling concept and the theories that may make it possible; if memory serves him right, it was the first time they spoke to each others even though they attended the same university and L recollects the memories of his past self standing in the room and verbally challenging Yagami about the impossibility of time travel.

_Quite ironic the fate would prove him wrong for the first time ever._

The intense quarrel was probably one of the fuel causing the dystopian future, L ponders with a thumb pressed upon his lips as he enters in the conference room.

"Forward and backward time travel, outside the usual sense of perception of time, is an extensively observed phenomenon and well understood within the framework of special relativity and general relativity." Light's voice is loud and severe as he keeps writing long equations on a blackboard. "Making one body advance or delay more than a few milliseconds compared to another body is not viable with our current technology and it also requires conditions that may not be physically possible. Travelling to an arbitrary point in space-time is supported in the theory of quantum mechanics or wormholes, also known as Einstein-Rosen bridges. But even said reasoning has a flaw." Yagami's amber eyes widen in surprise when spotting L's figure looming over the room and his voice echoes louder -in the attempt, L considers, to convince himself first of his own affirmation. "The biggest single argument against time travel is what known as the weak energy condition, a part of Einstein's general theory of relativity that states that any object must have a non-negative amount of mass. So, for the time loop to exist, you need a negative mass. And no object with a negative mass has ever been observed in nature."  
L frowns, chewing on his thumb. This is _not_ what Light told during the conference in the temporal line he comes from... He would prove the new idea of multiverse, infinite potential realities merging into one active one -the alpha line. The theory the past sceptical L tested when it was too late.  
Did the events already change?  
At the end of the conference another sudden development occurs: several men in black burst in the room and one of them shoots Light Yagami. The man dies in front of L's eyes and Kira's dystopia happens a month later.

_Who is this Kira?_

The second time L uses the time leap machine, Light is found dead before the conference. Even the third and the fourth and the fifth times, no matter how L tries to anticipate the events, Light keeps dying. _But Yagami is the cause of the dystopia happening at the end of 2010_, L bites his thumb until his mouth tastes blood, _and World War III keeps happening despite his death, why?_

In the sixth and the seventh world line divergence he lands in very well-known lines: Light is alive and has founded the Kira Corporation at the early age of twenty and he's laughing with eyes gleaming with malicious glee when the Wammy's House is ablaze. He doesn't know L has foreseen it in order to save Watari and all the kids.

L's voice is brittle and sadness clouds his vision when he shares his plans with Watari because he knows the old man, who's been like a paternal figure to him, is dead in 2030.

_I will save you all._

L keeps travelling through the temporal lines trying to put together all the small pieces gathered, but still he hasn't the frame of the whole picture. Whether Light dies or not, the Kira Corporation arises on the world's ashes -the men who kill Light, as L finds out in divergence number twenty-three, are a terrorist group that rules the organization with Yagami in 2030. Presumably the Light from L's first temporal line was already developing the first prototype of time machine according to his theories, which aroused someone's interest -if terrorists or other companies, it was hard to tell.

"The truth is, Yagami's life is hanging on by a thread." In the twenty-ninth world line divergence, Watari dies in L's arm. There's blood everywhere -on the corridor's floor, on the walls, on L's lab coat, on Watari's chest-, but the old man's smile is still gentle, a stir of hope rising inside of him as his fingers trace L's features. "There must be... a _brake_... to dump the... the oscillations."

_I need to find when the fuel burst._

World line divergence number thirty greets L with cheerful chirping between the cherry blossom and the warmth of an early spring. Wreathes of smoke curl from the engine as a loud noise made by the explosion of fuel in the manifold breaks the peaceful silence, but L's mind is unfocused and he barely registers the board switching off with a buzzing sound.  
Blood still soaks his hands and lab coat when he hops off the time leap machine with a huff, suddenly realizing the continuous travels damaged the machine.  
_The last thing that I need.  
_"Lawliet-kun?"  
As soon as he manages to activate the machine's procedure of dematerialisation, a known voice draws L's attention. Light Yagami is watching intensely at him, the school bag hung on his shoulders and keys in his hands. "What... What happened to you?!" L notices concern and bewilderment in his voice, though he feels distant, trapped in the divergence where his hands are holding Watari's dead body. "Nothing to worry about." He hears himself whispering a vague odd reason, while something breaks within his eyes and the slouch in his shoulders carries a unfathomable weight, an excessive punishment for his failure.  
"Come inside." Light pushes him gently past the opened door of his apartment, guiding him towards the bathroom where he forces L sitting on the edge of the bathtub. Face to the mirror, L observes the reflection of Light undressing him and washing the blood off his skin with a wet sponge. The mild touch of Yagami's fingers on his bony cheeks is a caress that pushes him on the verge of crying later that night.

When he wakes up the next day, L doesn't remember how he ended up sleeping in the guest room of Yagami's apartment and why he is wearing one of his black sweater.  
_Time travelling is surely having a bad side effect on me. Near warned about it.  
_The smell of coffee and toasted bread comes from the kitchen, where Light is sitting with a fuming cup and several books and notes displayed on the table when L steps in.  
"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Light pours another cup of coffee for L and places it on the table along with a sugar bowl. "If I remember correctly you take your coffee extra sweet, so help yourself."  
Brushing a bare foot to the back of his left ankle, L takes a seat in front of Light. The seat is too small and doesn't allow him to assume his usual crouched position, so he simply bends one leg under his chin and leaves the other dangling helplessly.  
"Thank you for yesterday." He says, pouring an enormous quantity of sugar in his coffee. "May I ask you what day is it?"  
"You're welcome." Light shrugs in his shoulders, tipping the back of a pencil against the table. "It's March 10th, why you ask?"  
_Almost a month since the conference.  
_L skips the answer, sipping his extremely sweet coffee. In the new divergence Light's assassination doesn't happen and the man alive before his eyes is a proof; however there's no clue if anything changed during Light's speech at the conference unless L asks directly. He's about to give voice to his own supposition when he notices the equations written in neat handwriting on the papers scattered all over the table. _Bingo_. The awaited answer is right there in front of him. "Are you still working on your theory about the possibility of time travel, Yagami-kun?"  
Light's shoulders tense at the sudden question, but the prideful look in his eyes confirms what L looked for in his endless travels. The dumpling oscillation as Watari suggested.  
"I know you would rather find it futile research, but _yes, I am_, Lawliet-kun. And I'll prove you wrong once for all as soon as I'll complete the first time leap machine."

A frog-like smile creeps along L's features as a plan forms in his mind.

Careful about concealing some important details of the purpose of his own investigation, L shows Light his time travel machine and ask him for help to fix it.  
It's innocent and pure the surprised enthusiasm gleaming in Light's eyes as he wanders around the machine, exploring the command board and touching the tangle of wires, muttering non-stop to himself like a boy who just unwrapped his Christmas present. Then he demands explanations and details to which L sometimes give cryptical responses when they start working on the project. It takes them three months to fix the machine and to improve its efficiency. Three months of them working side by side in Yagami's laboratory, studying and writing equations on blackboard or pieces of paper, three months of quarrels because they're both stubborn and Light Yagami isn't just another clever student like anyone else L has ever thought during university, he likes challenges as much as L, he's sarcastic and likes things well-planned, he's sometimes as bitter as his morning coffee and childish as L when he's effectively proved wrong. Three months where the world doesn't change and L wonders what is the fuel bursting said beautiful clever mind into insanity. Three months he observes his suspect and somehow grows fond of him, of his company, realizing they are both lonely men looking for someone able to live up to their high expectations.

_I wish I would get interested into knowing you before what you did._

"L." After three months they also started to call each others by their given names. "I would like you to answer me sincerely this time."  
They're having tea in the kitchen, Light watches the sunset while L pours a small tower of sugar cubes in his cup. Some tea spouts out as the cubes sink in the liquid with a loud pop.  
"You told me you come from a dystopian future and you're looking for the cause of it. Right?"  
"Correct."  
"Will I build a time travel machine in your future?"  
L pauses, lingering in the amber ocean of Light's eyes. They both know Yagami's aware of the truth even if L has never mentioned it, so it's futile to lie once again.  
"Yes, you will."  
"So... Am I the cause of your future?"  
"Probably yes."  
Light lets out a heavy sigh and his hands squeeze around the cup. "I... I've never told you what happened when you left after the conference. A terrorist group was interested in my research and threatened my family to force me work for them. I reached a sort of agreement lately... They won't kill my family if I success in building a time leap machine." His voice dries out and Light forces himself to stay focus despite the tremble of his fingers. "If... If what I did or I will ever do it's the cause of your dystopian future, than you must travel back in 2005 when we first met and stop me before I start researching on time travel. The machine now has enough fuel to travel back to that date."

_So, he's always been a tool in the terrorists' hands. That's why they tried to assassinate him, to steal the data of his work. It makes me wonder if the Light surviving in the other divergence lines made use of the machine to save himself and eventually take over the Kira Corporation... I experienced the side effects of the time travel on myself and I'm aware it may make you lose your mind. This will explain the turn of events at the end of 2010, the year Kira destroys the Wammy House in order to prevent me for building a time leap machine and travel through time to stop him._

"What will happen to you in this line?"  
"As soon as you leave, I'll burn all the documents and destroy my laboratory. They will probably find me and kill me soon, but I was always aware my actions would make a martyr out of me."

_A martyr. God-wise thinking, Light-kun... Your mind is probably already twisted and tormented by the weight you carry on your shoulders to be saved now. As sad as it is, you're a hanged man already._

"Ah and... Take this. You'll need it to gain my past self's trust." Light hands L his watch, a present from his father after entering university. His fingers expertedly pull the crown of the watch four times with less than a second in-between pulls, revealing a hidden compartment with a microchip at the bottom of the watch. "This chip contains all the data about the time travel machine. I updated it with our researches and everything you taught me during these months."  
"Marvellous." L mutters as he carefully observe the mechanism realized by Light. "To hide all your information from the terrorists I suppose."  
"Exactly. And... just one last thing, L."  
"Yes?"  
"When you'll meet my past self, don't turn away. I was so eager to know L Lawliet, the other top-ranked student as me and..."  
"And I treated you like you were simply one of those good family little genius who would never catch my interest." L finishes, the memory of his first encounter with Light Yagami still fresh in his mind. The cheerful smile on the teen's face, the hand stretched forward he simply ignored and then the disappointment veiling Light's eyes when L turned his back to him, muttering nothing than an impassive _"Nice to meet you"_.  
"Yes. It hurt me." Although that incident, Light doesn't feel resentment towards L anymore. "I felt lonely and _bored_. Long story short, I thought you could be... The friend I was looking for."  
Time travel taught L an unexpected lesson. Human nature is flawed and so it's the world they live in, a heap of actions balanced between positive and negative only when judgement is made and you can witness the true consequences of it. There's a thin line dividing the concepts of good and bad, a line human eyes cannot see, even the brightest minds, too focused on the rational world of action they often forget how a single word may burst Hell. Or change someone.  
His past self distanced himself from others and his selfishness probably hurt more people than just Light. He now knows what it means to be hurt, to be frightened, to care for someone so deeply to feel an empty shell. His past self wouldn't accept those feelings and would gladly pushed them aside, in the forgotten irrational hole of his mind, because he didn't need them. But he was human and so, flawed.

"I will atone for my sins."  
"Mpfh... You scare me when you're so serious. So... See you in 2005, L."

_I won't fail again. That's a promise, Light-kun._

Cherry blossoms welcome the first day of university in 2005. L observes the group of students in their new uniforms and school bags, cheerfully chatting on their way, when a hand taps on his shoulder.  
"L Lawliet, right? I'm Light Yagami. Nice to meet you."  
Light stretches a hand towards him with a bright smile upon his lips. L notices the watch clutch around his wrist before slowly shaking hands with the teen.  
He smiles back. "Yes, I am. Nice to meet you, Yagami-kun."

**Nda**

Weird ideas come when you're feverish but- **waves **Hello dears!  
This one-shot had to be part of Natural but it turned out longer than expected so I decided to post it alone. Steins;Gate is actually one of my favourite anime ever and if you love sci-fi animes, it's highly recommended!  
I wish I put more details into this fic, I'm pushing myself harder to write something decent in English- but still, hope you liked it and I would love to hear your comments about it :D  
Ja ne~


End file.
